Liquid condensate is a common state of proteins and polypeptides at the regime of high intermolecular interactions

Liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS) has emerged as a crucial biological mechanism for sequestering macromolecules (such as proteins and nucleic acids) into membraneless organelles in cells. Unstructured and intrinsically disordered domains are known to facilitate multivalent interactions driving protein LLPS. We hypothesized that LLPS could be an intrinsic property of proteins/polypeptides at their high intermolecular interaction regime. To examine this, we studied many (a total of 23) proteins/polypeptides with different structures and sequences for LLPS study using molecular crowder polyethylene glycol (PEG-8000). We showed that all proteins and even highly charged polypeptides (under study) can undergo liquid condensate formation, however with different phase space and conditions. Using a single component and combinations of protein multicomponent (co-LLPS) systems, we establish that a variety of intermolecular interactions can drive proteins/polypeptides LLPS.

Correlated states in doubly-aligned hBN/graphene/hBN heterostructures

Interfacial moiré superlattices in van der Waals vertical assemblies effectively reconstruct the crystal symmetry, leading to opportunities for investigating exotic quantum states. Notably, a two-dimensional nanosheet has top and bottom open surfaces, allowing the specific case of doubly aligned super-moiré lattice to serve as a toy model for studying the tunable lattice symmetry and the complexity of related electronic structures. Here, we show that by doubly aligning a graphene monolayer to both top and bottom encapsulating hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN), multiple conductivity minima are observed away from the main Dirac point, which are sensitively tunable with respect to the small twist angles. Moreover, our experimental evidences together with theoretical calculations suggest correlated insulating states at integer fillings of −5, −6, −7 electrons per moiré unit cell, possibly due to inter-valley coherence. Our results provide a way to construct intriguing correlations in 2D electronic systems in the weak interaction regime.

A weakly-interacting many-body system of Rydberg polaritons based on electromagnetically induced transparency

The combination of Rydberg atoms and electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) has been extensively studied in the strong-interaction regime. Here we proposed utilizing an EIT medium with a high optical depth (OD) and a Rydberg state of low principal quantum number to create a many-body system of Rydberg polaritons in the weak-interaction regime. The phase shift and attenuation induced by the dipole–dipole interaction (DDI) were still significant, and can be viewed as the consequences of elastic and inelastic collisions among Rydberg polaritons. We further observed that the width of the transverse momentum distribution of Rydberg polaritons at the exit of the system became notably smaller as compared with that at the entrance. The observation demonstrates the cooling effect in this system. The μs-long interaction time due to the high-OD EIT medium plus the μm2-size collision cross section due to the DDI suggests a feasible platform of polariton Bose–Einstein condensation.

Ultrafast pulse shaping modulates perceived visual brightness in living animals

Vision is usually assumed to be sensitive to the light intensity and spectrum but not to its spectral phase. However, experiments performed on retinal proteins in solution showed that the first step of vision consists in an ultrafast photoisomerization that can be coherently controlled by shaping the phase of femtosecond laser pulses, especially in the multiphoton interaction regime. The link between these experiments in solution and the biological process allowing vision was not demonstrated. Here, we measure the electric signals fired from the retina of living mice upon femtosecond multipulse and single-pulse light stimulation. Our results show that the electrophysiological signaling is sensitive to the manipulation of the light excitation on a femtosecond time scale. The mechanism relies on multiple interactions with the light pulses close to the conical intersection, like pump-dump (photoisomerization interruption) and pump-repump (reverse isomerization) processes. This interpretation is supported both experimentally and by dynamics simulations.

Tunable exciton–polariton condensation in a two-dimensional Lieb lattice at room temperature

Microcavities with embedded optically active materials allow to create exciton–polariton condensates in the strong light–matter interaction regime. These condensates exhibit quantum fluid properties up to room temperature, and, when crystal-like lattices are imprinted in the cavity, they can be used to emulate and study solid-state physics toy models. Here, we demonstrate room temperature polariton condensation in a nano-fabricated two-dimensional Lieb lattice with an organic polymer. We exploit the tunability of our open cavity to selectively condense into the s-, p- and d-lattice band manifolds. Furthermore, we interferometrically measure long-range first-order coherence across the lattice and assess the influence of the disorder in the system. These are key first steps to investigate extended topological polariton systems at ambient conditions.

Spikes and localised patterns for a novel Schnakenberg model in the semi-strong interaction regime

An analysis is undertaken of the formation and stability of localised patterns in a 1D Schanckenberg model, with source terms in both the activator and inhibitor fields. The aim is to illustrate the connection between semi-strong asymptotic analysis and the theory of localised pattern formation within a pinning region created by a subcritical Turing bifurcation. A two-parameter bifurcation diagram of homogeneous, periodic and localised patterns is obtained numerically. A natural asymptotic scaling for semi-strong interaction theory is found where an activator source term \[a = O(\varepsilon )\] and the inhibitor source \[b = O({\varepsilon ^2})\] , with ε2 being the diffusion ratio. The theory predicts a fold of spike solutions leading to onset of localised patterns upon increase of b from zero. Non-local eigenvalue arguments show that both branches emanating from the fold are unstable, with the higher intensity branch becoming stable through a Hopf bifurcation as b increases beyond the \[O(\varepsilon )\] regime. All analytical results are found to agree with numerics. In particular, the asymptotic expression for the fold is found to be accurate beyond its region of validity, and its extension into the pinning region is found to form the low b boundary of the so-called homoclinic snaking region. Further numerical results point to both sub and supercritical Hopf bifurcation and novel spikeinsertion dynamics.